as a u.s. operation. so there really was a need from their point of view to build up enough international political support so that the united states could say -- stay if not in the background, at least sort of on the sidelines. >> and the president in his press conference, i thought it was striking to list the things that we're not going to do. we're not going to deploy ground troops. we're not going to use force to go beyond a well-defined goal. what's with all this not, not, not stuff? >> there's a lot of ambiguity. he did say we're not going to employ a ground force which is prohibited by the u.n. resolution as well. he also said the goal of the operation will not go beyond protecting civilians. but at the same time, he said qaddafi has lost the legitimacy to lead. and you had secretary clinton and you had the french government also saying that the logical result of this operation will be that the qaddafi regime is overthrown. so they've certainly injected -- gwen: a logical result, but is that the goal? they've now set out a goal they have to push him out of office. they can't stop s

has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave. gwen: but what can the u.s. do to make it happen? sanctions, navy ships, no-fly zone, all being debated but the bloodshed continues. at home there's no blood but it's a standoff all the same. >> the best way to govern is quit spending more money than we take in. >> we need to cut spending. >> we also believe those cuts must be smart and targeted. gwen: congress gets a two-week reprieve to approve a budget but the underlying fight is far from over. and at the supreme court, a near-unanimous vote that flies in the face of public opinion. >> my first thought was eight justices don't have the common sense god gave a goat. gwen: testing the limits of free speech. covering the week, james kitfield of national journal, john harwood of cnbc and "the new york times," and joan biskupic of "usa today." >> award-winning reporting and analysis, covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill, produced in association with national journal. corporate funding for "washington week" is provide

our way. gwen: in washington, in madison n. columbus, in tokyo and tripoli, so much is turning on u.s. government action or inaction. starting with the budget, are we detecting any kind of give on this, karen? >> i will tell you the president's tone sounded almost like te adult telling the kids they can come out of the time-out corner now and start getting to work. all we really have seen this week is, you know, the as we knew it would happen, the republican's plan failed in the senate and then the democrat's plan failed in the senate. so it's very clear now that while both sides really want to avoid a government shutdown, they are not going to be able to come up with a spending bill that funds the government for the next of the year before the next deadline. so there's probably going to be another two or three-week bill and then at this point as the president said, we've got to quit running the government on these kinds of short-term fixes. but the important thing to remember is we're talking about a fiscal year that's already halfway over. this is not the main event this year. gwen:

into a situation here, a former nato ambassador said, we need the u.s. to come back in because you guys have more money, you have more of this weaponry and pleaps sitting there already paid for. that's probably where the biggest crunch will come. gwen: we'll be watching for all of this. i get the feeling we'll be talking about libya and syria and yemen for the next several weeks. thank you all very much. the conversation ends here, but it continues online. check out the "washington week" webcast extra for more. really good stuff. you can find us at pbs.org. and keep up with daily developments over at the pbs "newshour," on air and online. well see you right here, around the table, next week on "washington week." good night. gwen: down load our weekly podcast and take us with you. it's the "washington week" podcast at "washington week" online at pbs.org. >> funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> this rock has never stood still. since 1875, we've been there for our clients through good times and bad. when their needs changed, we were there to meet them. through the years, from insurance

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